In recent times, it has become known to coextrude a strand of sausage material which has an inner core of meat emulsion having an outer surface material that can be coagulated to provide an encasement for the strand. The coagulation normally includes subjecting the extruded strand to a brine solution. The brine is applied immediately after the strand is extruded.
The brine is sometimes sprayed onto the sausage strand as the strand is moved along an elongated conveyor which is comprised of a plurality of pivotally interconnected links that have a relatively flat supporting surface. One shortcoming of these links is that the bottom of the strand engaging the flat supporting surfaces of the links is not well exposed to the brine, whereupon the bottom surface of the strand is not well coagulated.
It is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide a conveyor for coagulating the outer surface of a sausage strand discharged from a sausage extruding machine wherein the sausage strand will be elevated from the supporting surface of the conveyor links so as to be exposed to the brine solution sprayed on the sausage strand.
A further object of this invention is to provide a conveyor for coagulating the outer surface of a sausage strand discharged from a sausage extruding machine which will permit the entire sausage surface to engage brine sprayed on the sausage strand from a plurality of positions along the length thereof.
These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.